Disclosed herein is an apparatus that detects blade deflection from a print assembly contact surface.
Presently, printing systems use rotationally supported print assemblies to produce prints on media. Such rotationally supported print assemblies can include photoreceptor belts, photoreceptor rolls, development rolls, fusers, release fluid transfer rolls, release fluid transfer belts, ink jet printer print drums, ink jet printer print belts, and other rotationally supported print assemblies. The printing systems can also use blades to clean, meter, triboelectrically charge, or otherwise manipulate the print assembly contact surfaces and/or the materials on them For example, the blade can affect toner, oil, or other material that is on the contact surface. Alignment of the blades to the contact surface is important to create a uniform contact and blade load along the length of the blade. Blade load is created by either directly applying a force to a pivoted blade holder or by positioning the blade holder relative to the contact surface to create an interference with the blade.
Conventional blade designs control critical parameters, such as blade alignment, blade interference, and other parameters, by either very tight control of component dimensional tolerances or during a manufacturing set-up. Either method adds cost to the blade assembly. New blade systems can use adjustable interference actuators and can have the capability of automatically installing replacement blades. Unfortunately, these systems also require high component tolerances to accurately locate blades against the contact surface. Thus, there is a need for a low cost, accurate, and efficient method of aligning a blade to a contact surface at the desired blade load.